Where Camels Become Beauty Queens: Inside Mongolia's Biggest Camel Festival
Two-humped Bactrian camels were domesticated thousands of years ago to carry goods and people across Asia. One festival in Mongolia annually celebrates this gentle giant.
Humps and hair. That's the scene in Bulgan Soum, a tiny Mongolian town in the middle of the Gobi Desert about 160 miles north of the Chinese border.
Bactrian camels arrive in all directions on foot, bearing bundled-up riders wedged between their two humps. It's early March. While the sky is cloudless, the wind can pick up quickly. Officially called the Thousand Camel Festival, the crowd that arrives for the kick-off approximates 100 camels.
The two-day festival begins with a camel beauty pageant.
